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PBI-Mexico renews accompaniment agreement with the Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 16, PBI-Mexico tweeted:

“Last week PBI extended its agreement with the @fpdtampt [the Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water – Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala] for another three years. This accompaniment allows us to make visible the serious risks faced by #human rights defenders who are members of the movement and contribute to the opening of safe spaces for action.”

PBI-Mexico further notes:

“The @fpdtampt has been working for more than 10 years in defense of the #land, #territory and the self-determination of #Indigenous peoples, against extractivist projects, for which they have been threatened, attacked, harassed, criminalized and murdered.

We recognize the importance of the work in defense of land and territory and reiterate the duty of the State to comply with international obligations and protect defenders of #human rights in their work.”

Nahua land defender and Peoples’ Front member Miryam Vargas Teutle: “We’re here to show that Indigenous peoples still exist and are still resisting colonialism.”

 Peoples’ Front members Liliana Velázquez and Samantha Cesar have commented: “[Extractivism] is a policy of death aimed at destroying the lungs of the world. As we know, the most important forests are located on indigenous territories. Hence the offensive against indigenous people.”

The Morelos Integral Project (PIM)

The PIM megaproject consists of the 171-kilometre gas pipeline across the states of Tlaxcala, Puebla and Morelos; a gas-fuelled thermoelectric plant in the town of Huexca, Morelos; and a 12-kilometre aqueduct to divert water from the Cuautla River near Huexca to cool the turbines at the thermoelectric plant.

The FPDTA-MPT has also stated: “[Mexican president] Lopez Obrador [support for the PIM] betrays the peasant and the promise of change of his government, to favour transnational corporations [including] Canadian miners like Alamos Gold.”

Toronto-based Alamos Gold has reactivated work on their Esperanza open-pit gold mine near the community of Tetlama (60 kilometres west of Huexca). Their statement suggests that this mine could draw energy from the plant.

PIM and the right to water

Latino Rebels has reported: “To cool the turbines at the plant, the adjoining aqueduct must draw 50 million liters of water daily from the Cuautla River, despite a statement by the state-owned electricity utility the Federal Electricity Commission that said that the plant would only draw from treated sewage [water].”

That article adds: “The river sustains 32 ejidos, or communal agriculture lands. Many of the ejidatarios —who collectively regulate use of increasingly scarce water supplies for irrigation through the Cuautla River Users Association (ASURCO)— warn that the project will deplete remaining supplies and return to the river contaminated water.”

PBI accompaniment

PBI-Mexico began to accompany the Peoples’ Front in 2020.

Náhuatl land defender and Peoples’ Front member Samir Flores Soberanes (second from the right) was murdered in February 2019 for his opposition to the PIM megaproject.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón at their general assembly

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 15, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“Yesterday, PBI accompanied the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabon in its general assembly.”

The Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón, a collective of 38 Maya Q’eqchi communities, began as a collective process around 2015 to oppose the construction of the Oxec and Renace dams on the Cahabón River and its tributaries.

On August 27, 2017, PBI provided security support to a community organized consultation in which 26,537 people in 195 communities of the Cahabón River participated. 26,526 rejected the presence of the hydroelectric dam company.

The Guatemalan Human Rights Commission (GHRC) highlights: “A few months later [in December 2017], Bernardo Caal Xol [of the Peaceful Resistance] was arrested [in] a clear act of retribution for the defense of his community’s water rights.”

In November 2018, Bernardo was sentenced to seven years and four months in jail. On March 24, 2022, Bernardo was finally released from jail.

The two most recently completed dams on Cahabón River are Oxec II which began operation in September 2018 and Renace IV which became operational in January 2019. These dams were built without free, prior and informed consent.

In December 2021, Digis Mak reported: “[The] Oxec private hydroelectric project has two dams and one more in the construction stage.”

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Peaceful Resistance since July 2017.

PBI-Honduras observes assembly of Quimistán communities concerned by the risk of displacement by the El Tablón dam

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 16, PBI-Honduras tweeted:

“[We] recently observed an assembly in which residents of Quimistán communities spoke about the risks of the “El Tablón” project. The communities expressed their rejection of any action that means their displacement and the destruction of the environment.”

On Facebook, PBI-Honduras also posted:

“As they share, they have not been consulted about the realization of the project; besides, remember that since the beginning of the year the municipality of Quimistán was declared free of hydropower and mining.

From PBI we express concern about the social and ecological risks reported by the people living in the region. We remind that communities have the right to access all information and to be consulted about any action that impacts their territory and their ways of life.”

In June, El Heraldo reported:

“The government of Xiomara Castro will allocate more than 200 million dollars for the construction of the “El Tablón” dam in the Sula Valley, in northern Honduras.

The dam will be built in the municipality of Quimistán, in the department of Santa Bárbara, at the height of the Chamelecón River at a cost of 200 million dollars, financed with national funds and another part of the multilateral bank.

“El Tablón” will be used as a multipurpose dam, with the main objective of regulating the flows in the Chamelecón River and controlling the floods caused in the Sula Valley, in addition to generating hydroelectric power and supplying drinking water to the region.

The Minister of Energy estimated that “according to the schedule of activities we have, it is likely that civil works will begin in the second half of 2023 or at the beginning of 2024…”

La Prensa has also reported:

“Every time a new government dusts off the plans to build El Tablón, in the community of La Ceibita, Quimistán, Santa Bárbara, they raise their hands to their heads as a sign of concern and uncertainty.

The LA PRENSA Premium Research Unit team visited the area where the dam will be built and the site, a small canyon where the dam curtain will go, is barely located 10 minutes by road from the community.”

And the Government of Honduras-affiliated Canal 8 has reported:

“The construction of the “El Tablón” hydroelectric plant has been a postponed project since 1974. …It was not until 2007, during the term of former president José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, that … a [$1 million] consulting contract signed with … the Canadian consulting firm SNC-Lavalin International Inc., to review and update the feasibility study, detailed bid design, and bidding documents for the dam construction concession.”

We will continue to follow this.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Poqomchi’ community leader David Maxena Caal at court hearing

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 12, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“PBI accompanies in the continuation of the debate of David Maxena, member of UVOC, criminalized for defending his ancestral lands.”

UVOC has previously posted: “Months in prison without committing any crime. Since February 14 of this year, the Mayan Poqomchi’ community leader David Alejandro Maxena Caal, defender of human rights and mother land, was detained.”

UVOC adds: “The Santa Teresa Hydroelectric and the Shintun Agriculture S.A. municipality of San Miguel Tucuru, are the main plaintiffs against the communities that were stripped of their land that was an ancestral belonging to them.”

In January 2017, Avispa Midia explained: “In the case of the Santa Teresa hydroelectric plant, it belongs to the company Agro Comercializadora del Polochic, SA (AGROPOLOCHIC), a member of the CM [Corporacion Multi Inversiones] consortium.”

That article adds: “EGI Guatemala was involved in the construction of the Santa Teresa hydroelectric plant, located in the Polochic region, in the municipality of Tucurú, which is owned by the Agropolochic company, a member of the CM group.”

It further notes that EGI Guatemala is the main subsidiary of ENEL in Guatemala, which owns the El Canada hydroelectric dam. That dam has been described as a “controversial carbon finance project”.

The Santa Teresa dam is situated on the Polochic River, which discharges 70 per cent of the total freshwater input to Lake Izabal.

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has accompanied the Union of Verapaz Campesino Organizations (UVOC) since 2005.

PBI-Colombia accompanies CAHUCOPANA at meeting with German, French and Swedish Embassies in Bogota

By
Brent Patterson
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CAHUCOPANA president Carlos Morales (third from left in photo).

On August 12, the German Embassy in Colombia tweeted:

“Worrying panorama that alerts @CAHUCOPANA and @PBIColombia about attacks and threats against the civilian population in Northeast Antioquia. From France, Sweden and Germany we reject what happened and reaffirm support for initiatives for peace and protection of #human rights throughout the country. #DefendLife.”

That same day, the French Embassy tweeted the same message. The Swedish Embassy also tweeted the same text.

The day before, August 11, PBI-Colombia also accompanied CAHUCOPANA at a meeting with the Canadian Embassy.

Meetings in Germany

The meeting with the German Embassy followed Morales’ visit to Germany earlier this year.

On May 16, PBI-Germany tweeted:

“Together with Gloria Orcué [from the Inter-Church Commission on Justice and Peace] & Carlos Morales [from CAHUCOPANA], we spoke to representatives of @AuswaertigesAmt [Federal Foreign Office] & @unidasporlapaz [civil society collective for peacekeeping and peace building] today about the elections in Colombia, the situation of human rights defenders & the need for differentiated protective measures in Colombia.”

CAHUCOPANA president Carlos Morales

Front Line Defenders has noted: “Carlos Arturo Morales Mallorga is a human rights defender, peasant farmer leader and current president of CAHUCOPANA.”

They add: “In 2015 he was victim of a judicial set-up and imprisoned for 7 months in Palo Gordo prison in Santander department, until a judge annulled his trial and ordered his release in the absence of evidence. Morales and other members of Cahucopana have been beneficiaries of precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) since 2018.”

On February 28, 2022, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “#ALERT Carlos Morales, human rights defender with @Cahucopana accompanied by PBI, was shot along with his wife last night in Barrancabermeja. In the midst of a very serious context of violence #NoHayGarantías [no guarantees] and it is #URGENT that the authorities take measures.”

PBI-Colombia has accompanied the Humanitarian Action Corporation for Coexistence and Peace in Northeast Antioquia (CAHUCOPANA) since 2013.

Petro government seeks to cancel Platero and Kalé fracking pilot projects in Puerto Wilches, Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: On August 10, Environment Minister Susana Muhamad was at the media conference announcing new legislation that seeks to ban fracking in Colombia.

El Tiempo has reported that Environment Minister Susana Muhamad, the Minister of Mines and Energy Irene Vélez and 65 members of Congress filed a bill in Congress on August 10 that seeks to prohibit fracking in Colombia.

Kalé and Platero pilot projects

Portafolio adds: “it should be remembered, there are two pilot research projects: Kalé and Platero. The first of them already has an environmental license, with which it could start operating.”

El Colombiano further explains: “This new project [legislation banning fracking], which has the support of the National Government, through Minister Mohamad, not only prohibits this practice, but also vetoes the development of the Integral Research Pilot Projects (PPII) of Platero and Kalé, and even seeks to freeze the latter’s environmental license, which was approved by the National Authority for Environmental Licenses (ANLA).”

And Valora Analitik notes: “[Kalé] was awarded by the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) to the hydrocarbon company in November 2020, already has an environmental license from the Environmental Licensing Authority (ANLA), granted in February 2022. Meanwhile, Platero, the second of Ecopetrol’s projects, is awaiting environmental licensing by the authority that grants the permits in the country.”

Government reviewing the status of the pilot projects

Minister Vélez says: “We are going to review the status of the two pilot projects: Kalé and Platero. Both currently have situations in front of the environmental situation and it will be our commitment to fulfill the country that there will be no fracking, both from a research perspective.”

Investor rights

The El Tiempo article adds: “There are several companies that could claim to have acquired rights.”

It further notes: “It should be remembered that in past years the country had signed exploration agreements with three companies: Parex, Drummond and ConocoPhillips. There are 7 projects that were suspended by the Council of State, but that came to light with the most recent decision of the body. Regarding these, the article states that ‘as of the issuance of this law, contracts, concessions, licenses or environmental permits for the exploration, exploitation and production of Non-Conventional Deposits may not be signed, added to or granted.’”

Parex, Sintana and Canacol in Colombia

As El Tiempo notes above, Calgary-based Parex Resources has a signed exploration agreement with Colombia.

Earlier this year, Parex highlighted: “On September 18, 2014, Parex Colombia signed an E&P Contract with the ANH for Block VMM-9 [in the Magdalena Medio region].”

Additionally, Toronto-based Sintana Energy holds a 30 per cent non-operating share in VMM-37, the Platero fracking pilot project block.

And Calgary-based Canacol Energy Ltd. holds a 20 per cent stake in the VMM-2/Plata and VMM-3/Piranga projects. In April 2021 the company noted the “significant potential” for fracking these blocks.

The Canadian position

The Government of Canada has not taken a public position on fracking in Colombia. Nor has it taken a position on Canadian corporations utilizing the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions in the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement for lost investments and future profits if fracking is banned.

More than 200,000 wells have been horizontally fracked for shale gas or oil in Canada, mostly in the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, with some wells in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

We continue to follow this situation particularly with respect to the threats and attacks experienced by human rights defenders opposed to fracking in the Puerto Wilches area.

Photo: On June 28, PBI-Canada met with social leaders in Puerto Wilches and heard their commitment to stop fracking. We continue to follow this situation.

PBI-Guatemala seeks field volunteers, deadline to apply is September 4

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project is seeking field volunteers to accompany human rights defenders.

The deadline to apply is September 4.

The training and selection week will take place in Spain from January 15-21, 2023.

All the information needed to apply can be found here.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Poqomchi defender Justino Xollim Tilom at sentencing hearing

By
Brent Patterson
-

On August 11, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“PBI accompanies Justino Xollim Tilom member of the UVOC in the sentencing hearing. He is accused of illegal logging, a crime he reported against other people.”

On February 17, 2019, Prensa Comunitaria reported that Xollim, a representative of Poqomchi communities in his territory, has worked for a decade to have the government grant them general title to their lands. While Xollim was going to the Public Ministry on February 15 to denounce the felling of trees by a wood company on this territory, he was arrested by members of the Tourism Security Division.

PBI-Guatemala has also noted: “His community is part of the UVOC which has endured several processes against it because of its demand for access to land.”

UVOC is an indigenous and peasant organization dedicated to the defence and promotion of access to land in the context of historical dispossession and ongoing inequality in Guatemala. UVOC represents Q’eqchi’, Poqomchi, Achi and Mestizas peoples.

About 40 per cent of the population of Guatemala is indigenous.

Indigenous and peasant farmers were dispossessed of their land in the 18th century through Spanish colonization which drove them to the less fertile highlands.

Land distribution in Guatemala continues to be deeply unequal with the largest 2.5 per cent of farms currently occupying more than 65 per cent of the land while 90 per cent of the farms are on only one-sixth of the agricultural land in the country.

There are now at least 1,000 land conflicts happening in Guatemala, many of which are related to concessions given to foreign companies for mining, sugar cane and palm oil farms, and hydroelectric dams, all of which deepen dispossession, exclusion and poverty among the indigenous peoples of Guatemala.

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied UVOC since 2005.

Photo: Justino Xollim Tilom

PBI-Colombia accompanies CAHUCOPANA at meeting with Canadian Embassy on the situation in northeastern Antioquia

By
Brent Patterson
-

On August 11, PBI-Colombia tweeted:

“We thank @CanadayColombia [the Embassy of Canada in Colombia] for supporting @CAHUCOPANA and leaders / those in #northeastern Antioquia who, without guarantees of protection, defend life and resist #war with measures such as #humanitarian actions. Key that the international community supports proposals for #peace from the territory.”

The Embassy also tweeted:

“Meeting with @PBIColombia and @CAHUCOPANA to discuss the humanitarian and security crisis in northeastern Antioquia. The situation is serious and the authorities must pay attention. We denounce the attacks and threats against communities and social leaders.”

CAHUCOPANA president Carlos Morales

Carlos Morales (fourth from the right in the photo) was at the meeting with the Embassy.

Front Line Defenders has noted: “Carlos Arturo Morales Mallorga is a human rights defender, peasant farmer leader and current president of the Corporación Acción Humanitaria por la Convivencia y la Paz en el Nordeste Antioqueño (Cahucopana).”

They add: “In 2015 he was victim of a judicial set-up and imprisoned for 7 months in Palo Gordo prison in Santander department, until a judge annulled his trial and ordered his release in the absence of evidence. Carlos Morales and other members of Cahucopana have been beneficiaries of precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) since 2018.”

Armed attack against Morales in February

On February 28, 2022, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “#ALERT Carlos Morales, human rights defender with @Cahucopana accompanied by PBI, was shot along with his wife last night in Barrancabermeja. In the midst of a very serious context of violence #NoHayGarantías [no guarantees] and it is #URGENT that the authorities take measures.”

And Blu Radio reported: “Carlos Morales, a social leader from Remedios, was the victim of an armed attack in Barrancabermeja, Santander, where he was relocated by the National Protection Unit because his life was in danger in Antioquia.”

Mining in Northeastern Antioquia

PBI-Colombia has previously explained: “The abundance of natural resources in these lands and the arrival of multinational companies, such as the Canadian Gran Colombia Gold, has provided the illegal armed groups who are present in the region with an extremely lucrative funding source in mining.”

Gran Colombia Gold (renamed GCM Mining in November 2021) operates the El Silencio, Sandra K, Providencia and Carla mines in the Segovia-Remedios area along with interests in three other mines in Colombia.

In October 2021, El Espectador explained:

“In northeast Antioquia, the presence of armed groups has been a constant. The guerrillas arrived first, like the extinct FARC, during the 1980s. Ten years later, with the emergence of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), the municipality became a place of dispute over the wealth of its gold-mined land. According to its inhabitants, this wealth has belonged to the armed groups and the multinationals that, according to what the trade unionists have denounced, committed crimes to keep most of the territory to exploit this mineral with titles in perpetuity.”

Artisanal mining in Antioquia

PBI-Colombia has also previously highlighted that may of the people CAHUCOPANA works with are involved in small-scale artisanal gold mining who are concerned by large-scale commercial mining projects backed by national governments.

Between July 21 and September 1, 2017, the towns of Segovia and Remedios went on strike against government decrees that sought to curb “illegal” mining that artisanal miners said blocked them from working independently.

In April 2017, Gran Colombia filed a USD $700 million lawsuit against Colombia under the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

At that time, the Financial Post reported: “Gran Colombia’s suit alleges that the local government failed to evict illegal miners from their sites of operations in Marmato and Segovia, and didn’t stop the Marxist armed guerrilla group, the ELN, from interfering with their efforts to extract gold in the province of Antioquia.”

Hidroituango in Northwestern Antioquia

About 120 kilometres due west of Remedios is the town of Ituango, Antioquia.

The Hidroituango hydroelectric dam is being built in northwest Antioquia by the Colombian state-owned utility Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM). EPM has twice benefitted from the support of the Government of Canada financing agency Export Development Canada (EDC). In 2016 and 2017, Export Development Canada provided EPM with financing totalling between 500 million and one billion dollars.

In June 2018, The Guardian reported: “[Isabel] Zuleta [of the Rios Vivos movement – and now a Senator] worries about the security of those who campaign against the dam: two other Ríos Vivos members in Antioquia were murdered [in May 2018].”

Aris Gold mine in Marmato

About 360 kilometres south of Remedios is the town of Marmato.

It is there that Gran Colombia’s plan to flatten a mountain and create an open pit mine was met with resistance from artisanal miners who said this plan would destroy their livelihoods and the surrounding environment.

In September 2011, the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR) condemned the murder of Father José Reinel Restrepo, a vocal opponent of the mine.

Father Javier Giraldo, the founder of the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace, has stated he believes Father Restrepo was murdered by paramilitary groups “secretly co-opted by the armed forces and by the government security agencies” who “do not hesitate to murder the leaders of this resistance.”

Days after Father Restrepo’s murder, MiningWatch Canada sent this open letter to the Canadian Embassy in Bogotá, expressing concern that Canadian mining companies “may well be aggravating or benefiting from violence.”

In September 2019, Mining.com reported: “Residents of the 500 year-old Marmato town, mostly opposed the miner’s intention of flattening a mountain to create an open pit. That is no longer an issue, as Gran Colombia has opted for underground mining at Marmato.”

The Marmato mine is now operated by Vancouver-based Aris Gold. As of today, GCM beneficially owns 60,991,545 Aris Gold shares representing approximately 44.3% of the issued and outstanding Aris Gold shares.

Self-protection mechanisms

CAHUCOPANA notes: “We work together under the need to strengthen the protection and self-protection mechanisms of peasant communities.”

PBI-Colombia has accompanied the Humanitarian Action Corporation for Coexistence and Peace in Northeast Antioquia (CAHUCOPANA) since 2013.

PBI-Colombia accompanying Morales, March 2022.

PBI-Mexico accompanies Cerezo Committee at sit-in protest at Supreme Court

By
Brent Patterson
-

On August 10, PBI-Mexico tweeted: “Today we accompany the @comitecerezo in the popular plantón [sit-in protest] that will remain before the @SCJN [Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation] until the sentence issued today by the Court is implemented.”

Urgent Action for Human Rights Defenders (ACUDDEH) also tweeted: “Accompaniment of Peace Brigades International (PBI) to the Cerezo Mexico Committee.”

Police harassment

The day before, PBI-Mexico also tweeted: “We ask that the acts of harassment cease and that the protection of the members of the Cerezo México Committee and the members of the popular plantón currently installed in front of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation be ensured.”

The Comité Cerezo México has posted: “In the evening and early hours of August 9, CDMX [Mexico City] police tried to prevent FNLS [National Front for Socialism] members from entering the plantón in front of the SCJN [Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation]. Over 800 riot police encapsulated protesters for two hours.”

Front Line Defenders has explained: “The Frente Nacional de Lucha por el Socialismo (National Front for Socialism) is a grassroots movement working to denounce and publicly condemn violations of human rights perpetrated by the Mexican government, specifically those related to enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings, arbitrary detentions and political prisoners.”

Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez and Edmundo Reyes Amaya

On August 10, Pie de Página reported: “The @SCJN resolves in favor of the relatives of two EPR [Popular Revolutionary Army] militants detained and disappeared by the army in 2007. The court’s sentence implies the opening of the military barracks to search for Edmundo Reyes and Gabriel Cruz.”

La Jornada also reported: “Relatives and legal representatives of Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez and Edmundo Reyes Amaya, who disappeared on May 25, 2007, expressed their agreement with the draft sentence presented by Minister Margarita Ríos Farjat, which will be voted on today in the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN).”

That article adds: “Ríos Farjat proposes to summon the Secretariats of National Defense (Sedena) and the Interior (SG), the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) and the National Search Commission (CNB) so that in 30 days they take concrete actions to resolve this case.”

PBI-Mexico began to accompany the Cerezo Committee in 2002.

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